{
 "id": "george-macdonald/an-old-sermon-with-a-new-text",
 "title": "An Old Sermon with a New Text",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "George MacDonald",
 "poet_slug": "george-macdonald",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "The Disciple and Other Poems",
 "book_slug": "the-disciple-and-other-poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 4,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1867,
  "venue": "The Disciple and Other Poems (1867)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/discipleandothe02macdgoog",
   "https://archive.org/metadata/discipleandothe02macdgoog"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/george-macdonald_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1953",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8949",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9543",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9984",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10578",
   "https://archive.org/details/bookofstrifeinfo00macd",
   "https://archive.org/details/discipleandothe02macdgoog",
   "https://archive.org/details/hiddenlifeandoth00macduoft",
   "https://archive.org/details/discipleandothe02macdgoog",
   "https://archive.org/details/rampolli00macd",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/102955776",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011821572"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 72,
  "n_stanzas": 12,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 44,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "My wife contrived a fleecy thing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her husband to infold,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For ’tis the pride of woman still",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To cover from the cold:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "My daughter made it a new text",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For a sermon very old.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The child came trotting to her side,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ready with bootless aid:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“Lily make veckit for papa,”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The tiny woman said:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Her mother gave the means and ways,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And a knot upon her thread.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Mamma, mamma!⁠—it won’t come through!”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In meek dismay she cried.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Her mother cut away the knot,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And she was satisfied,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Pulling the long thread through and through,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In fabricating pride.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Her mother told me this: I caught",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A glimpse of something more:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Great meanings often hide behind",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The little word before!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And I brooded over my new text",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till the seed a sermon bore.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Nannie, to you I preach it now⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A little sermon, low:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Is it not thus a thousand times,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As through the world we go?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Do we not tug, and fret, and cry⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Instead of “Yes, Lord⁠—No?”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "While all the rough things that we meet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which will not move a jot,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The hindrances to heart and feet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Crook in every Lot,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Mean plainly but that children’s threads",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Have at the end a knot.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "This world of life God weaves for us,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor spares he pains or cost,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But we must turn the web to clothes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And shield our hearts from frost:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall we, because the thread holds fast,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Count labour vain and lost?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "If he should cut away the knot,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And yield each fancy wild,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The hidden life within our hearts⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His life, the undefiled⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Would fare as ill as I should fare",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From the needle of my child.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "As tack and sheet unto the sail,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As to my verse the rime,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "As mountains to the low green earth⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So hard for feet to climb,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "As call of striking clock amid",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The quiet flow of time,",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "As sculptor’s mallet to the birth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the slow-dawning face,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "As knot upon my Lily’s thread",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When she would work apace,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "God’s “Nay” is such, and worketh so",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For his children’s coming grace.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Who, knowing God’s intent with him,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His birthright would refuse?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "What makes us what we have to be",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is the only thing to choose:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "We understand nor end nor means,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And yet his ways accuse!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "This is my sermon. It is preached",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Against all fretful strife.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Chafe not with anything that is,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor cut it with thy knife.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Ah! be not angry with the knot",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That holdeth fast thy life.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}